Coffee 101
Step up your coffee knowledge with this simple guide
More than ever, coffee has been on the rise, all over the world. More and more people are starting to drink coffee. This can be attributed to the growing coffee lounge culture, increasing work pressure or just that coffee tastes good! In any case, if you love coffee, this guide will help you in gaining more understanding and expand your palette.
64% of American adults currently consume coffee every day, averaging around 3.1 cups per day.
Once roasted, pretty much all coffee beans look the same. But did you know that there are actually dozens of different varieties of coffee beans? More often than not, when we think of how coffee is categorized and marketed, we’re usually thinking of things like roasting profiles or source of origin. This information is certainly helpful in identifying what to expect with a given coffee, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
Types of Coffee Beans - Arabica | Robusta
The first step in understanding your coffee is to figure out the type of coffee beans, that you are brewing. There are dozens of varieties of coffee beans, but the major two that matters are- Arabica and Robusta. The differences between these two are significant and it has a direct impact on the taste and the caffeine content.
Arabica beans account for 75 to 80 percent; Robusta beans, for the remaining 20 to 25 percent.
Arabica has become the preferred choice in the United States because it actually has a sweeter, more delicate flavor and the coffee itself tends to be less acidic. Robusta has twice the amount of caffeine than Arabica, hence it has a stronger taste and often harsh flavor profile. In addition to an overall sweetness that Robusta lacks, Arabica also has more nuanced flavors than robusta. Fruity, chocolaty, nutty, and other notes are found in arabica coffees, but rarely show up in robustas.
Robusta coffee beans come from a resilient plant that can be grown at low altitudes of 200–800 meters. Robusta beans aren’t very susceptible to damage done by pests. Additionally, they produce more finished product per acre and require fairly low production costs. Arabica coffee beans are fragile and must grow in cool, subtropical climates. Arabica beans also need a lot of moisture, rich soil, shade, and sun. Because of their fragility, Arabica beans are vulnerable to attack from various pests and can be damaged by cold temperatures or poor handling. This type of bean also needs to be grown at a higher elevation (600–2000 meters).
If you had to choose between an Arabica bean and a Robusta bean, choose Arabica!
Where does it grow? Taste depends on it…
Five geographic coffee-growing regions — South America, Central America, Asia, Africa, and few islands (Hawaii and Jamaica) — are situated between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, where the climate is hot and humid.
Depending on the region where the coffee plant is, the taste differs. The above map shows the generic flavor profile, by region. The taste differs based on the region because multiple factors go into defining the final taste of the bean. Major elements are environmental — weather, soil, altitude, plant type, and other factors that are not environmental are — picking/processing methods. I mentioned plant type here, but didn’t I say the plant falls under generic Arabica or Robusta species. Yes, but even within Arabica, there could be multiple varieties, that don’t differ a lot in terms of composition (hence Arabica), but could have a slightly different taste profile.
Colombia is often instantly associated with quality coffee, and rightly so, the nation is the world’s third largest grower and importer of the raw beans.
Processing Method
Before going into how it is made, let’s make few basics clear — Coffee plants grow cherries and each cherry contains 2 coffee beans. So, the coffee beans have to be extracted out of the cherry. There are multiple ways to do that and depending on the process, the taste could change.
Dry Method | Natural Process
The fresh cherries are spread out on a large surface and left to dry in the sun for 15 to 20 days. They are usually put on drying beds slightly raised from the ground, to ensure air circulation around the berries. They are regularly turned and raked throughout the day to avoid fermentation and to ensure they dry evenly. The berries are then covered at night to keep them from absorbing moisture. Depending mainly on the weather conditions, the drying process may take several weeks for each picking run, until picked cherries have a moisture content of less than 11%. At this stage, the outer layer will have dried up and turned black and brittle. The drying makes it relatively easy to remove the outer skin.
The natural process imparts a distinctive fruity flavor to the cup.
This dry-processed method is often used in countries where rainfall is scarce and long periods of sunshine are available to dry the coffee properly. Coffees from Sulawesi, Brazil, Sumatra, and Yemen are dry-processed, as well as some from Ethiopia, Mexico, and Nicaragua.
Wet Method | Washed Process
This method is a relatively new way of removing the skin from coffee cherries. It’s called ‘wet’ because it uses water to both move the coffee fruit through the process and to extract the beans. The wet method involves cleaning the cherries and removing unripe and overripe cherries; just as in the first method. The cherries are then put through a pulping machine that squeezes out the skin without damaging the beans. This is made possible by the fact that coffee beans are relatively hard. If some berries are still left with the pulp on, they are not ripe enough.
With wet method, you don’t have as much flavor of the fruit, more of the seed itself.
Coffees from Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Kenya, Java, and Papua New Guinea are wet-processed.
How is taste affected by the processing method?
For coffee producers, selecting a processing method is a decision borne out of necessity, tradition, and the intent to achieve a specific flavor profile. In Guatemala, for example, dry processing is a poor fit for the coffee grown there. Owing to the country’s high humidity, a dry-processed coffee would likely become fermented. Conversely, Brazilian coffee growers rely on the dry-process method to achieve the sweet, heavy-bodied taste qualities that are the hallmark of Brazilian coffee.
Roasting
Irrespective of when you started drinking coffee, I’m sure you would have heard about various roasts of coffee — dark, medium, light.
Unroasted coffee is also known as green coffee and such beans have all the flavors locked in them. Roasting seeks to transform the green coffee into the aromatic brown beans you buy in your favorite stores.
Roasting causes chemical changes to take place as the beans are rapidly brought to very high temperatures.
When they reach the peak of perfection, they are quickly cooled to stop the process. Roasted beans smell like coffee, and weigh less because the moisture has been roasted out. They are crunchy to the bite, ready to be ground and brewed.
Light roast
Light brown in color, this roast is generally preferred for milder coffee varieties. There will be no oil on the surface of these beans because they are not roasted long enough for the oils to break through to the surface.
Medium roast
This roast is medium brown in color with a stronger flavor and a non-oily surface. It’s often referred to as the American roast because it is generally preferred in the United States.
Dark roast
This roast produces shiny black beans with an oily surface and a pronounced bitterness. The darker the roast, the less acidity will be found in the coffee beverage. Dark roast coffees run from slightly dark to charred, and the names are often used interchangeably.
Conclusion
Each step in the coffee processing, from farm to cup, affects the taste of it. It is not necessarily that one process is better over others, but it depends on what you like. Next time when you are buying coffee beans (yes, always buy beans and grind the coffee at home!), including roast type, also note which region it comes from, what type of coffee it is and how it is processed. Try out different types and look for subtle taste differences. You will definitely start enjoying coffee more!
Always buy coffee beans and grind at home, right before you brew! Ground coffee starts losing taste within 30 mins.
